Sunday, May 27, 2012

Maplelag hosted a early season race to celebrate Jake graduating from high school. A good number of team members hitting the Maplelag course for pretty much perfect riding conditions. Always a great day to ride and race with team members. Great job to everyone waving the flag so nicely. Big thanks to Bruce at skinnyski.com for photos. Click here for photos and results.

Jens heading out with cousins Grant and Garrett. Cole Johnson in the mix waving Lag shorts.

Jake weaving through the trees.

Jeff Beck

Greg Ames

Matt Wenzel. Mat also graduating this year. Congrats Matt!!

Matt Engen threading the needle through the trees.

Ben Wenzel waving one of the early team jerseys.

Steve Wenzel rolling through.

Berm action on last section of singletrack.

Tony Schmitz rolling lakeside.

Denny Barry rolling off the start.

Thad Schulz lakeside.

Ian Fritz hitting the home stretch.

Tom Heilman climbing lakeside.

Shreddin' the Lag with the Dog... Carlos putting in a good day with 13 miles plus all out effort.

Wednesday, May 23, 2012

The Minnesota Mountain Bike Series (MNMBS) kicked off last weekend with the opening race testing riders on the slopes of Afton Alps. A good representation by the team in various categories and age groups with Wyatt and Devon Horner, Thad Schulz, Jordan and Andrea Horner, Greg Ames, Eric Oftedahl and Corey Coogan Cisek dicing it up in the challenging course. Click here for full results. Skinnyski photos.

Tuesday, May 15, 2012

Team members Steve Wenzel and Matt Engen were back in action on the endurance side of things representing the team nicely in central North Dakota. Steve recaps the event:

The Burleigh County Cup, North Dakota's premier all gravel road event
was held Saturday, May 12th. Starting in Eagle Park just north of
Bismarck, the 50 plus riders rolled out in perfect ND weather. The
options were to ride the 35 mile "Sippy Cup" or the 75 mile "Burleigh
County Cup".

I know it is hilly out in this part of ND and it did
not disappoint. We made our way out of the Missouri River Valley and
headed out to the beautiful rolling hill prairies smack dab in the
middle of the state. One of the cool things about these gravel road
events is that you have to pay attention to your location the whole
event or you will miss a turn and go off course - the BCC was well
mapped and calibrated with my GPS throughout the ride.

In
total, 4200 feet of elevation climbed. All the gravel roads were well
groomed with minimal traffic. The 8 miles of two track section road was
a nice mix in the middle of the course.

The BCC crew did an
outstanding job of organizing and pulling this inaugural event off. I
highly recommend sending your post card in next year. Who knows what
they will throw at us on a yearly basis as the options seem to be
endless.

Monday, May 14, 2012

Saturday Lars, Jake and I rode from Maplelag to Mary Yellowhead (MYH). MYH is a area just west of the Tamarac Wildlife Refuge. The MYH road is a gravel road which provides access to MYH trail. Off of MYH trail are numerous atv trails
that are neither marked or found on any map. I was first introduced to
the trails from early team rider Chris Ziegler who lives a few miles
away from the trail. The quad trail riding is fun riding with great
terrain. There is some good flow and makes for nice deep woods riding. There are a lot of trails to be explored. Just ride until they come back to the road or dead end.

Riding down the MYH road.

MYH trail

Climbing one of the longer hills on MYH trail. Fast fire road riding.

Jake climbing one of the hills on the quad trails.

Jake and Lars weaving through the quad trail.

Taking a break before heading back. A nice 30 mile out and back ride. Mixed it up a little at the end, coming through the Sugarbush trails and riding the Maplelag ski trails to the north.
Paceline on hiway 34. Pavement riding for about half mile. If you would like more information about riding the Mary Yellowhead, please drop a note. jrichard@arvig.net

Tuesday, May 8, 2012

Denny Barry recently took a trip out west to hook up with former MN resident and team rider Paul Cullen for some early season riding in the foothills of Helena area and provided a few photos from the trip.

The third annual END-SPAR (Extreme North Dakota Spring Primer Adventure
Race) event was held at Turtle River State Park, 20 miles west of Grand
Forks, ND Saturday, April 28th. I had participated in a couple of Swamp
Donkey Adventure races up in Canada in years past and was intrigued by
the close location and getting out and doing something different.

The
weather could not have been better - overcast and cool with a strong
south east wind. Fellow Team Maplelag member Matt Engen joined me in
the 2 person open category.

With the course maps freshly
distributed along with our check point punch cards the adventure was on.
6 mandatory check points were required and all were to be found in the
beautiful Turtle River State Park. I am sure that we hit every corner
of the park at least once not to mention crossing the Turtle River a
half a dozen times. All 6 check points accomplished and our next goal
was to grab the optional points along the "river walk". This task
consisted of hiking or running along the Turtle River looking for 3
locations which require an identification punch. Grab all three and you
get 3 points.

After checking in again Matt and I were on our
bikes heading to the small town of Larimore, ND. Speed helps, but in
the end getting as many of the 15 optional points in the time allotted
is the most important.

In Larimore, we tried everything we
could except for the raft section which was 3 points lost. We did
navigate the wilderness around Larimore for 3 difficult check points and
bagged them all. The organizers threw in a couple of crazy obstacles
that required patience and skill - a hike a bike down to the lake and
back that was extremely hard, building a fire with 3 matches and a
cotton ball covered in petroleum (Matt and I failed this task) and a
bear bag skill that required our back packs to hang from a tree as if we
were in the wilderness to keep the bears from our gear. All were well
thought out and interesting to try.

Being bikers, pushing the
wind 10 miles back to the park was perfect for Matt and I. We grabbed
all of the check points to and from with no troubles.

Back at
the park, 5 hours into the allotted 6.5 hour event we still had 3 check
points that were to be found while riding our mountain bikes. Matt is
good with a map and we found all three and returned to the start/finish
just in time.

Of the 15 possible check points, Matt and I
finished with 11. 1 lost for failing the fire test and 3 for skipping
the boat section. In speaking with the other racers, it seemed that if
you did the boat section you were limited in time to get the trekking
points. So, Matt and I missed the boat, but grabbed the majority of the
points.

6.5 hours of non-stop movement in beautiful ND. Lots
of slogging through the woods, rivers, swamps and sand - most excellent
adventure!